1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a veterinary medical information product which is maintained and controlled by the handler or owner of the animal to which the information pertains.
2. Description of the Related Art
Veterinary medical science has created many new methods, treatments, and medications to extend and improve the lives of animals. However, this has resulted in a significant increase in the medical information that a person must be aware of in order to maintain their animal""s health, and get the best benefit from these medical improvements. Often, a sick domestic or wild animal, and even a healthy animal may be called upon to receive a number of different prescription medications, salves and ointments, and other topical treatments. Each medication typically requires specific instructions, including warnings on correct administration, consumption and alerts for indications of possible side effects. Because there is such a significant increase in the amount of medical information that a person must know in order to optimally treat an animal""s condition, errors can occur that adversely affect treatments and/or counteract or minimize the beneficial impact of the medications. At worst, serious injury or death has occurred due to incorrect treatments.
Problems arise when either the veterinarian making the prescription or the person filling the prescription makes an error or provides information that is not understood by one of the other parties. These errors can be from transcription, misinterpretation, or insufficient information being made available to the handler/owner. The most common handler/owner originated errors are:
(a) giving incorrect doses to the animal
(b) giving doses to the animal at the wrong time
(c) forgetting to give a dose
(d) stopping medication too soon
(e) giving or administering the dosage improperly, causing interactions.
A system in accordance with the present invention includes a device for an animal handler or owner to use to better control implementation of medication therapies. The device will, among other functions, track and display:
(a) medication name and purpose
(b) dosage, frequency and duration
(c) possible side effects
(d) record of medications administered
(e) special instructions for administering medications, such as with giving the medication with or without meals, fluids, avoiding sunlight, etc.
Besides information about medications, it is important for a handler/owner to have a brief medical history that can be provided to veterinarians or other animal care providers, have a log of consumption for their animal""s medications, and maintain information about who their veterinarian and/or insurance providers are, and handler/owner personal contact information. This data is considered critical not only during typical interaction with veterinary health care providers, but particularly in emergency medical situations. Any device that is capable of tracking the medication data that a veterinary handler/owner needs should also be capable of tracking all these other health related data.
However, it must be recognized that this medical information loop includes other personnel besides the owner/handler. These include, as an example, veterinarians, breeders and possibly trainers. Thus any device must be capable of allowing each of them to read veterinary information on the animal, handler/owner data, and input information, and it must not require any significant time for them to accomplish this. In particular, the system must blend with day to day activities of the veterinary health care provider as well as the handler/owner.
Any solution to the problem must recognize this veterinary medical information chain that primarily consists of the animal, the handler/owner, and the health care prescriber (typically the veterinarian) and care provider (for example, the trainer). The information in this chain is created preferably on a per animal or set of animals basis, making the handler/owner the natural repositor for the information, with the prescriber (the veterinarian) being the initiator of the information and being a source of complementary information so it is in a form useful to the handler/owner. Thus the product must work with both veterinary medical terminology and layman""s terms to promote optimum benefit of treatments and medications.
An additional requirement of any product that contains veterinary medical history information on an animal, especially in professional animal breeding and care, is security. Thus any product must provide maximum protection of data from access by unauthorized persons. Although many devices use PIN""s to limit access and a PIN or password would be necessary for this product, the nature of the data in a device such as proposed here may also protect the data via encryption.
The present invention is a system of component devices that provides proper information to the handler/owner of the animal so that the handler/owner can ensure that each animal can get maximum benefit from their medications, he or she can track medication consumption, and facilitate transfer of critical data for optimal care of the animal. The system is capable of managing information, in a highly portable form for an individual animal or set of animals cared for by a handler/owner. The system in accordance with the present invention performs and/or facilitates the following functions:
(a) Provides a record of medication information;
(b) Maintains current and historical veterinary medical data on the animal handler/owner;
(c) Creates and maintains a historical log of veterinary pharmaceutical agent consumption;
(d) Warns handler/owner of side effect indications, interactions, and other special instructions, especially when scheduled medication times are missed or modified; and
(e) Provides a vehicle for interchange data among various individuals and groups involved in animal care such as the handler/owner, veterinarian, veterinary technician, emergency personnel and veterinary hospital personnel.